Pre-Wrap Up Note: When deciding on what to focus on in this course, I chatted with a few people from the department as well as a few outside of the department. One of the things that consistently came up was the idea of self-representation on the internet, among other things. In your readings last week, specifically the article Be Who You Want to Be, you can see that this will be a focus of the class. If you haven't already, please go back and read the articles I assigned for last week.
In this class we will focus on a few things:
1). Self representation on the internet
2). Social Selves
3). How media has taken shape over the last 40-50 years (thus some older readings are in order)
4). Different types of media (blogging, twitter, facebook, you tube, etc...)
5). Philosophical ideas of media (McLuhan.....anyone......anyone......Bueller......)
So as you can see by the focus of the class we will be taken in many different directions over the course of the class. Hold on tight, you're in for a fun and exciting ride.
Switching gears: Every week I will post an Instructor Wrap Up to my blog. Sometimes it will be earlier in the week, sometimes it will be a bit later in the week. However, I will talk about a good majority of the articles required, by posting to my blog. So please check my blog often for updates.
I will admit it early on in the class - I'm a bit of a geek! Yep, that's right, I'm geeking out about the Licklider article. There are so many things I would love to discuss with each of you, and these are the times I wish I taught f2f classes. However, I am particularly glad this class is online due to the nature of the subject.
Without further ado, I will geek out on you a bit about the Licklider article.
At first glance, one can assess the Licklider article as dry, boring or outdated. I beg to differ. Considering the year that the article was written, this guy was far ahead of the times. First off, in the introduction, the editors give some detail about Licklider and his accomplishments.
The article starts out by talking a bit about the idea of symbiosis. Early on it talks about how a fig tree can only be pollinated by a specific insect (Blastophaga grossorun), and that symbiosis is, "living together in intimate association, or even close union, of two dissimilar organisms". The article then goes on to explain the difference between the "Mechanically Extended Man" and "Artificial Intelligence" - very interesting stuff!
Licklider then goes on to explain what the objective is of man-computer symbiosis. There are two ideas that Licklider explains. He then covers the idea for Real-Time Thinking, which was an interesting idea. Apparently in 1957 Licklider conducted a personal experiment and recorded what he did (noted as a 'moderately technical person') during the hours he regarded as 'devoted to work'.
He then covers 'Separable Functions....', and 'Prerequisites for Realization of Man-Computer Symbiosis". The latter is where I want to camp for a little while. In this section there are a number of interesting ideas, ones that I found amusing, interesting, and downright amazing, considering the time it was written. Keep in mind that this article was written 50 years ago. How far have we come since then? And how far do we still have to go to fulfill the ideas presented in this paper?
I had an interesting conversation with my husband about sections 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 and 5.5. I won't bore you with all the details, but I will highlight some.
5.2 - "When we start to think of storing any appreciable fraction of a technical literature in computer memory, we run into billions of bits and, unless things change markedly, billions of dollars". Let's think of a typical computer we use today, or perhaps an iPhone. These devices can store billions of bits, yet comparatively, we pay very little for them. Things have come a long way in 50 years! It makes me think about where technology and media will be in another 10, 20, or even 50 years. The possibilities are limitless.
Licklider goes on to talk about books. I found this section amusing for obvious reasons, but what struck me the most was the phrase, "Books are among the most beautifully engineered, and human-engineered, components in existence...". Think about that phrase for just a second. Think about the implications of that. Wow! I'm almost speechless.......almost.
Section 5.4 highlights the language problem between man and computers. This language problem still exists today. But the most interesting aspect of this was when Licklider noted that there is a huge difference between human languages and computer languages. While chatting about this article, I mentioned how ironic it is that computer speak such a different language, yet humans are the ones who give computers the language to speak. I can go on and on about this, but I will stop there!
Section 5.5 goes on to discuss Input and Output Equipment. This section was, by far, the most entertaining to me. There are so many things I would love to talk to you all about such as:
*"Nowhere, to my knowledge, however, is there anything approaching the flexibility and convenience of the pencil and doodle pad or the chalk and blackboard used by men in technical discussion."
*"How desirable and how feasible is speech communication between human operators and computing machines?" (pg.80).
*"Yet there is continuing interest in the idea of talking with computing machines." (pg. 80).
*"It seems reasonable, therefore, for computer specialists to be the ones who interact directly with computers in business offices".
I can go on and have hours of discussion about this article. I was initially drawn in by the idea of symbiosis between man and computer, but found many more interesting sub-ideas contained within the article. I truly hope you all had a good time reading the article and have taken just a bit of time to ponder what Licklider foresaw. There are many wonderful aspects that you can discuss in your blog post this week about Licklider, and I can't wait to see what you all come up with!
Look out for another post later this week about the other required article for this week's discussion.
Until then, The Blogging Prof (a.k.a. geek), signing off!
Hi Blogging Prof,
ReplyDeleteIn reading your post here about the Licklider article, I definitely get your energy about it. This is where I too would prefer a face to face class; how a professor posits an article can definitely help guide the conversation. While I pretty much spanked up on his article, mostly because of how dated it was, I have to admit that his comment about output devices also caught my attention.
When I first started in technology, I worked for HP in San Diego as an assembler; I built transmissions for oscillographs, output devices much like an echo-cardiogram puts out, but for electronic equipment. Our plant also made the first pen plotters, which led to the first inkjet printers. Yep, my company at my site invented inkjet printers.
This loops back to your point about how far we had come in just 20 years at that point - what would he have thought about pen plotters, much less oscillographs?
At any rate, thank you for this post as I now have a different perspective in which to consider this article, but also our other readings.
Cheers!
Chato.